Well, here we are again, mulling over players we’re not sure we have a chance with.
This morning, everyone is thrashing about in the water because the choice is apparently Odegaard vs Maddison.
Now, I still find the idea of James Maddison a bit nuts. £70m plus whatever a player of his calibre earns… feels a bit of a stretch. But what can’t be denied is he’d be an absolute powerhouse of a signing. We’re absolutely awful from dead-ball situations, he delivers massive amounts of chances from setpieces. He’s a brilliant binder on the pitch, he creates chances, progresses the ball well, and last season he started adding more goals to his game. He was the difference between Leicester being in the title-chasing pack, to finishing 5th again.
Now you’ll remember last week.
‘Oooohhhh, bit pricey, right?’
Skip forward to this morning. Martin Odegaard, our primary target at the start of the summer, is apparently going to be fishing for a move back to the carpet for about half the price.
‘He’s shit, no end product’
Now, a few things we need to be a little wary of here… the player loves Real Madrid. There was a moment a few years ago when Cesc Fabregas had the chance to come back to London because Wenger was sniffing around him. Now, I don’t know if I have this perfectly narrated… but United were circling and Wenger didn’t want him to go there. He waited, but in the end, Cesc used our interest to get assurances at Barca, he stayed another year, then moved to Chelsea after we’d secured Mesut Ozil.
Time is running out in the window, we cannot be allowing Martin to rattle the commitment cage, then find ourselves up shit creek without a second creator again.
On the Norwegians talent profile, please, get away from me with ‘he’s no good’ rubbish. That is such a drossy statement.
Things to remind yourself of:
He’s 22 years old. An absolute baby in terms of the position he’s playing. There is still a lot of space for him to grow as a player and a leader. Where was Jack Grealish at that age? In the Championship scoring 5 goals and landing 5 assists with Aston Villa with big questions over whether he had the right mentality to succeed. Where was James Maddison? With Norwich in the Championship about the bang. Where was Serge Gnabry? Bumming around in Premier League 2 about to get moved out of Arsenal to Germany as a massive flop that wasn’t right in the head.
Players get better. Odegaard is a very good player. He’d played about 14 minutes of football in 6 months before he joined the Premier League. It takes time to adapt to a new culture, to a new fitness regime, and a new style of coaching. He still delivered a good showing. 90th percentile for progressive carries, 86th percentile for progressive passes, 96th percentile for passes attempted, and 98th for passes completed… in a totally broken squad.
Give him a system that doesn’t require him to drop so deep to force things to happen with players like Ben White and Lokonga declogging our slow play and aversion to playing through the middle and you have someone that can really find a next level.
It’s also worth referencing his season with Sociedad where he had a better run into a team that wasn’t on its knees like Arsenal were at Christmas.
Odegaard created 62 chances that season when he was 20 years old. Last season, the biggest chance creator in La Liga was Messi with 77. He is so far from average it is painful. If we can’t land Maddison, then we wouldn’t go far wrong with Odegaard. If you want to land a glimpse of what he could offer us next season, rewatch the Brighton game.
Honestly, I cannot fathom some of the chatter that goes on… Maddison is too expensive, let’s unlock European talent. Odegaard? Nah, not enough end product. Pick a lane. You want now talent, it’ll cost £70m, you want to take a chance on talent, it’ll look like Odegaard. Neither player would be a bad option.
Young players get better, especially those adapting from foreign countries. People complaining about our lack of goals seem to forget that up until matchday 14, we scored under a goal a game (0.85 per game), after we added 2 creators (ESR/Odegaard), we were only outscored by United and City (1.79 per game). \
Imagine what both of them could do in a more balanced team with a captain that has his head in the game?
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments.
I’m more afraid, Arteta will play Odegaard for 38 matches after buying him for 50m just to prove a point that he was right.
Same as Willian.
I’m sure if you try to find the ‘correct’ data, Dani Ceballos would look better than Ode, playing in that Red Shirt.
Dani Olmo holy shit man
id take him over Maddison… the kid is a straight baller…
major upside and technical ability.
how these players end up at Leipzig or get developed there is the real question… incredible what they are putting out.
imagine a Szolobaszi and Olmo together??? shit!
Camavinga moved yet? another gem waiting to get picked up…
How about that Barca kid? forget his name ATM
Gems are there and we are looking at Neves, ode etc…
We need some calculated risk in our transfers. Stop playing so safe.
High risk high reward.
I guess Mike likes the system tho.. his choice of mids tells me that we wont be seeing much freedom once again
I think the philosophy at RB Leipzig and Salzburg is to let the players showcase their natural talents with a lot of freedom, as to attract suitors and sell for mega $$.
Developing rigid and system oriented players- not going to get as much selling these types.
Its why I am wary of selling Ben White- I dont think his value will go up anytime soon. He costs a ton already!
Anyhow,
Add in Olmo, Aouar, Luataro and we looking closer to top 4 fo sho
MB, would be crazy for Arteta to spend 40m on a player then play him. Hate that kind of point proving.
Guns, no club has a more rigid system than RB Leipzig, which is why it works.
Every manager plays the same way
They mostly sign players 17 to 23
They don’t go for hollywood signings
Consistency top to bottom, no excuses.
Pete,
Rigid in how they play? Their players are a highlight reel…
Mane, Haaland etc… I am sure there are more that have come from there.
Point is that they let the kids showcase their stuff, to get more visibility and more $$.
If I was forced to pick between Maddison and Odegaard, I’d pick Maddison any day of the week. I hate slow football, I hate 5m passes, I hate playing safe in 9/10 times as a CAM, I hate that he reminds me of Ozil, I hate that Arteta likes boring players. Maddison easily ahead of Odegaard and Bernardo Silva ahead of both. Although Bernardo is a bit risky as it depends if he’s a good fit or not – if he is, he has what it takes to be world class player for us. If he doesn’t, we get to… Read more »
Olmo would be great but also will cost us a kidney or two.
Guns, they play a very specific style of football at every level throughout the club. Do you ever watch them?
Olmo at 55M right now
Leipzig makes a killing selling these assets
Aouar is the bargain of the summer. We still sitting on our hands tho…
Unless Edu pulls a coup and brings in some serious firepower, it aint looking so hot right now
Raptora, yes, boring players… he’s building around Martinelli, Saka and ESR… terribly dull players.
Pietro (italian version)
Then why do these players sell for so much if their system is so rigid?
Guns, they grow fit, intelligent, tactically astute players and give them the chance to shine young. They fast track that because there’s consistency at every level, across every club. They idea that Arsenal are adopting some sort of crazy idea because we’re creating structure is quite absurd… especially as we saw what no structure did to the club over a decade.
Willian, Neves, Odegaard sound so exciting… Wake me up when it’s all over.
Xhaka Jr and Ozil Jr. Lol
Like we didn’t try that under Wenger and it failed miserably.
Guns
Why are you conflating scouting to football philosophy?
They recruit superbly, doesn’t mean their football is inspiring. It’s incredibly industrious and tactical, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but they’re not Barcelona lite in terms of style.
Prefer the Egyptian version of Pedro to the Polish and Italian.
Boutrous (as in former UN Secretary General Boutrous Boutrous Ghali)
So diplomatic/devious (take your pick according to whether you love Arteta) they named him twice.
Raptora, who are the wildly exciting #6 players in the world? Not many have a show reel as spectacular as Neves when it comes to goals.
Say what you will about Ozil, but the idea that he’s a boring player is quite possibly the saddest take I’ve read from you in a while. He has one of the biggest followings in football. If Odegaard becomes half what Mesut was (2016), we’ll be doing ok on the excitement front.
Saka, Martinelli, Partey, ESR, Balogun… think you’re going to struggle to palm those names off as boring.
Words, Boutrous is Pedro?
Pedro
Raptora wants Denzel Dumfries over an attacking midfielder, that’s his idea of excitement. A 25 year old at PSV getting tepid interest from Everton.
Yeah, I do. Kike Marin 14 March 20 A piece of news to cheer on the gooners: Denzel Dumfries, PSV right-back, 23 years old and 1.98 tall, is one of @Arsenal’s goals for next season. He would be a great signing !!! ^ That’s year and a half ago. Right now, the rumours around him connect him with Inter, Real Madrid and Everton. Hardly a bad bunch of clubs. I guess I’m not the only one. Not like there was a huge interest towards a certain LB from Celtic but he seems quite good. Honestly, I’m sharing an opinion and… Read more »
CC, Dumfries is this Euros Milan Baros.
So now Odegaard is cut from the same cloth a David Silva – erm, what???
Literally the only thing they have in common is they are both left footed. That is where the similarities end. Odegaard doesn’t have the end product that Silva had and I very much doubt he ever will. Honestly makes me wonder what game some people watch…
I hear that Tavares is better at RB than at LB. We may not need to sign a RB, post Bellerin.
Pedro
what are your little birds telling you?
Pedro,
Arteta is extremely lucky to have the young boys. They are the ones that saved his sorry ass after Christmas. His Willian blockbuster move turned out a misery. He couldn’t handle or extract anything of the old players either. Turned Auba into a vegetable.
Watch as he roots Martinelli back on the bench like he’s done many times before to play Willian. Watch as he doesn’t give any chance to Balogun like he barely ever did last season.
He already decimated AMN’s value. Torreira, Guen. Same.
‘What game are people watching’
Odegaard at 20 playing for Real Sociedad in 2019.
Jose Campana: 58 chances created.
Lionel Messi: 55 chances created.
Martin Odegaard: 54 chances created.
Santi Cazorla: 54 chances created.
Sergio Canales: 52 chances created.
Pretty sure he’s going to have end product to his game.
Boutrous is Arabic for Peter.
Raptora
Pot. Kettle.
Just highlighting your version of “exciting” as you routinely dismiss any and all things Arsenal. Just you that gets to share an opinion is it?
Words, I did not know that. Thank you
Pedro,
Please remind us when he has played Gaby last? Only played ESR as he had no other choice, and overplayed Saka, along w England.
Come on man…..
Pedro
You have eyes. If you think Odegaard is a similar player to David Silva then in your own words, I cannot help you.
Lots of ITK journalist are reporting that we have been actively marketing Lacazette around the continent.
Laca is going, Tammy is coming in.
Dumfries, PSV’s captain as a Right Back mind you since he was 23 yo, lit the Euros and has been our target for a long time apparently.
We hear how Odegaard is a leader though. LOL
Pedro
Always one duffer at a Euro’s who dons the lipstick for 5 matches then reveals himself a hot mess at his new club – he’s a contender for sure. I wait to be proven wrong as he lands at Real Madrid…..apparently…..and tears it up of course.
Certainly not accepting he’s a more exciting addition than Martin Odegaard ffs. Ruben Neves either, obviously hasn’t seen the mans hair, it’s pure L’Oreal.
Well in Texican… you is… Cowboy Peet. or Peds. for short. 😀
Aaron, you can make excuses about everything. Not enough for Gabi, too many for Saka, accidental for ESR. You can’t even find a thread here.
What are the facts?
Martinelli played 2300 minutes
Saka over 2000
ESR over 1500
Arteta gives young players chances and contracts, now we have young players like Lokonga joining.
“Lots of ITK journalist are reporting that we have been actively marketing Lacazette around the continent.
Laca is going, Tammy is coming in.“
How does that sit with you? Usually good for finding the dull in most things, this another pellet for Arteta in waiting?
Not gonna lie I had to Google Jose Campania.
28 yo, has been playing for Levante since 2016. What a baller. Another home run for the chance creation stat.
Also, please remind everyone how many good years AFC got out of ozil versus the length of contract and the amount we paid him…
That was one of the worst mistakes ever, lately, next to willian…
Pedro/Boutrous
It has not been often in recent times that I’ve wholeheartedly agreed with you, but on Odegaard I’m with you all the way.
He has Ozil’s vision and silky skills, but is much more energetic and switched on defensively.
He can play with or instead of ESR (who I love).
And he should be much cheaper than Maddison, who judging from his record and issues with Brenda at Leicester could easily become a Geudouzi mark 2 if he ever ended up being managed by Arteta at Arsenal.
CC, I was watching his showreel earlier… he’s scored some outrageous goals in his career. Total screamers… as 6s go, he’s hardly dull.
Words, with you… everyone says he’s slow, I thought he look quite nippy. Certainly more energetic that Ozil. If he can find goals next season, we’d have a player on our hands.
Raptora, you’ve hit a low when you try and palm off chance creation as a worthwhile statistic when talking about a creative player.
Pedro,
Nah, he’s not slow, he just sometimes has that languid Ozilesque way of moving.
Really surprised that Pierre doesn’t rate him.
CC
“How does that sit with you? Usually good for finding the dull in most things, this another pellet for Arteta in waiting?”:
Selling Laca who has one year left on his deal for Tammy Abrahams will be the the highlight of the window for me.
Tammy will easily replace the 13-15 goals Laca scores. Tammy presses better and will actually win headers with defenders.
It’s not a knock on Laca by the way but he can’t be allowed to run down his contract.
Pedro
Been on Neves case since he landed in the Championship, good pal is a Wolves season ticket holder and LOVES him. He arrived as a #8 and was electric, Nuno shifted him deeper and the feeling as far as he’s concerned is it stifled him a bit.
Won’t lie, think Neves has stagnated in the last 12 months playing in a dull side, but imo he’s one of these guys chomping to make the step up. Man is 24, needs some better players around him to help reward his game.
Pierre loves the youngsters more than he loves Ozil Jr. Kudos for that. ESR will be better than Odegaard in 2022 if he’s allowed to start in the bulk of our games this season. I’d rather get Aouar who is mainly a CM but can also be used as AM or Bernardo who can play anywhere anytime.
CC, think there are a bunch of players that suffered during the pandemic. Neves certainly did because he lost a great striker to that head injury and Wolves lost their sauce when Jota left. Pretty sure everyone raved about him the season before when defending having a super agent owner.
Words, Pierre needs to have the MiB treatment for Ozil. He can’t leave it alone.
If, as reported, we’d be nuts enough to pay £50m for Ben White and submitted two failed bids for a relegated goalie,, Ramsdale,,quoted £30m, then spending £70m on Maddison is not only normal but responsible and proportionate in the priority area where we were weakest and almost non existent last season.
Odegaarde proved not what we needed during his loan. We ought to respect Odegaarde’s immense love for RL (not unlike the club’s reported stance toward Locatelli love for Juv) and let him continue staying happily with RL…
Dissenter
Not sure about the highlight, but totally agree it represents a complete shift in competency when dealing with players in their final year.
Pedro
Look no further than Diego Jota when considering a guy doing goods things that were made much better at Liverpool. That’s the point of scouting guys that ‘fit’ vs grabbing a seductive name. Jota walked into Liverpool and his game was immediately rewarded/amplified playing in a side with more general ability. Exactly the scope I expect from our incomings.
CC, Ndombele, love child of FT, absolutely tanked. There’s always a risk with any player, but getting some Prem ready players to replace Prem players exiting is smart.
We have or had a great opportunity to change the trajectory of the club this summer
We could actually sign Lautaro Martínez who may be available to for as little as 60 million
If Abraham is not acceptable, then go after this guy. He’s going to blow up the premier league a la Alexis Sanchez.
Sell Laca for 15 mill, Eddie for 15 million and get this done.
Diss, he’s an outrageous talent, but seems well beyond us at the moment.
Pedro
I’m not so sure.
Bellerin swap can lower the cost – 15 million offset
Laca for 15 mill, Eddie for 15 million – 30 million offset
Sell AMN for 10-15 million
This deal could be neutral in terms of cost. He can take Laca;s wages.
That will be the marquee signing that will send the fans into non-stop orgasms.
Pedro I’m totally behind the transfer strategy this summer, it’s so refreshing to see commonalities in each target. There’s a profile, a preference, and a coherence behind what we’re threatening to deliver come full time. White, Tavares, Lakonga in by the weekend and it’ll warm right up. Add Neves, Odegaard, Abraham, Ramsdale, and the squad composition is drastically different to last year. Oldest player in question would be 24, it would be a superb overhaul. Think how we sell remains the definitive factor to just how far we push the boat out. Said it previously, but what we do with… Read more »
Diss, his Fbref numbers are impressive.
https://fbref.com/en/players/f7036e1c/Lautaro-Martinez
Inter are in financial trouble
United have thrown their load at the market
City are after Kane
Chelsea are after Haaland
Madrid are broke
Barca is broke
PSG are pulling all stops to keep Mbappe
Bayern still have an elite goal scorer
Juve are broke
We can get Lautaro Martínez
We just need to stop trying to spend stupid money on goal keepers who haven’t shown any inkling of excellence. Identify the special players that can win 3-4 games a season with individual brilliance.
CC, agree. The summer looks like it could be sharp. Every signing feels considered and scouted. Only one I don’t understand is Ramsdale, but a capped keeper as back-up makes sense.
Making it blend ASAP is going to be a huge challenge, but at least we’ll have a balanced squad and no need to create special strategies to shield weaknesses.
We lack that one player that can win 3-5 games/season with individual brilliance, games that we don’t have any business winning.
Wewn Wenger struggled in his last decade, there was always such a player; RVP, Ramsey and Alexis.
Arteta is unwise to not seek such a signing.
Pedro
No, he’s the question mark of the bunch purely because I’ve seen so little of him. But I’m very much behind the intention in his recruitment. We could go for a Neto and watch him wither through a 4-year deal, or we could recruit a 23-year old with apparent potential.
It’s very on brand to do the latter and lean heavy into the “hungry and talented” culture being nurtured at the club. You’ll find no objection from me toward that approach, just skepticism about how far to stretch the money.
Lautaro Martinez would carry risks, no guarantee he’ll settle on or off the pitch
High risk, high reward
While you’d naturally expect him to be better in his second season than his first, we’d still need him to be at a high standard from the off, we don’t have the luxury of 12 month adaptions
For every Alexis + Aguero, there’s been a Veron + Di Maria
Remember Tevez + Mascherano needed time at West Ham
Pedro
:”What are the facts?
Martinelli played 2300 minutes
Saka over 2000
ESR over 1500
Arteta gives young players chances and contracts, now we have young players like Lokonga joining.”
Martinelli 2,300 mins …yeah right, i think you need to check your facts.
Lautaro Martinez is nothing like Alexis Sanchez.
Play in different positions for a start. And the latter for my money had the far higher ceiling at the same age, he would so very well to go on to be close to the player that Alexis was.
In the end we all k ow we’ll end up with Ramsey on a 4 year deal.
Add Neves, Odegaard, Abraham, Ramsdale, and the squad composition is drastically different to last year.
Yep, indeed. None of these really make me think needle mover.
more like, system players, safe and secure.
Maybe Abraham is ok, but id rather go for some young risk…there are out there still!
This Covid TW, is very different. I think Sancho is the most expensive so far, so nothing too cray (albeit white)
We can and should go for Lautauro. Camavinga and some excitement with a CAM. Christ, the fans are humans too, and need some excitement!!!!
‘but a capped keeper as back-up makes sense.’
He’s uncapped as it happens. At senior level.
About to be the 7th most expensive keeper ever and he’s an uncapped GK that has conceded 128 goals in two PL seasons being relegated in both of them.
I get how you could defend most of the other potential signings but that one is showing your implicit trust and bias towards Artedu, it’s a ill-advised move to make when there are better alternatives on the market for less.
https://fbref.com/en/players/a3b03921/Joe-Willock
https://fbref.com/en/players/79300479/Martin-Odegaard
Whoever wants willock to go and Odegaard to sign should have a look at this..
Willock has 10 areas of at least 90 percentile
Odegaard has 3 areas of at least 90 percentile..
As expected , passing is the only area Odegaard beatscWillock , every other area Willock destroys Odegaard.
And for anyone that wants to see why Willock should leave, select the comparison to Premier League players and marvel at him being in the bottom 1% for passing, and bottom 3% for possession.
A midfielder that can’t pass, progress the ball, or involve himself in the use of the ball. Basically a guy that lives for making runs and hassling when out of possession.
Willock destroys Odegaard in every area except passing……blows him away ..
Including defensive stats like pressures , tackles , blocks and interceptions ….destroys him..
To be honest with 17 days to go… until first match.. This transfer window has been one of the most disappointing ones ever. Still waiting for that Kroenke Goodwill/ Apology tour to start.
The Dog Licker and Lokonga .. are ok.. but we have moved out nobody but Luiz, permanently. And yet to sign a player who you can say with confidence will get us more points.
Things need to start happening like, yesterday. Trying to stay positive but feeding off of fake news scraps isn’t doing it for me.
Xhaka and Odegaard have very similar looking data ….that says it all really …..safe , safe , safe…give me a player who makes a difference
https://fbref.com/en/players/e61b8aee/Granit-Xhaka..
https://fbref.com/en/players/79300479/Martin-Odegaard.
Willock is an off the ball player, which is much more suited to lower end teams like Newcastle who surrender possession to the better sides and strike on the counter. Makes the most of his pace and on-ball running power into acres of space. Weird that Pierre can’t let this one go, he’ll probably go on to be a good PL player elsewhere but he’s not a good fit for a top end team that want to dominate the ball [which we aren’t but is what we aspire to be, allegedly]. Against teams that sit back and allow us the… Read more »
“Willock destroys Odegaard in every area except passing……blows him away”
Not exactly true though is it? Odegaard “destroys” Willock in passes, through balls, progressive carries/passes, shot creating actions, expected assists. The list goes on.
“Including defensive stats like pressures , tackles , blocks and interceptions ….destroys him..“
Should really help cure the creative issue at the club, guess we’ve been missing an attacking midfielder who could average two blocks a game.
Do you know who else Willock destroys in all these categories? Kevin De Bruyne, Man City no doubt lining him up as backup to Grealish.
Charlie
“Basically a guy that lives for making runs and hassling when out of possession.”
You forgot to mention the fact that he can put the ball in the back of the net with great regularity, a part of Arsenal’s game that you have been harping on about for months now
Midwest I agree, the one positive of the window for me thus far besides two low risk potentially high reward players in Lokonga and Tavares that beef the squad numbers up nicely is that we are at least actually looking to sign a few marquee players even if they are questionable picks imo, beats the summer of 2015 where we were the only club in all of Europe to not sign a single outfielder. A heavy spend on Ramsdale, White, Abraham and Neves would be very disappointing in my mind. Fundamentally good PL players that lot [Ramsdale questionable] but for… Read more »
we cannot play it safe anymore. We need signings that will move the needle- get goals, assists and move us up the table. Nothing so far. We need to take chances. We are not in the position to sit back and keep status quo… With Mike and his rigid system, someone needs to get in his ear about the need for central attackers who can score. Young talent that are ready now, and give them chances ( Ala Camavinga) We need to move up fast. We do not have the time and luxury and resources to stay in 8th spot.… Read more »
“Do you know who else Willock destroys in all these categories? Kevin De Bruyne”
Nice try charlie but not true
https://fbref.com/en/players/e46012d4/Kevin-De-Bruyne
Pierre So what? Every other aspect of his game that is ill-fitted to Arsenal should be ignored because he scored regularly for Newcastle? Makes no sense at all. He did well there because they play entirely into his limited strengths. They have less of the ball, and he has acres of space in the final third as they sit back. His pressures and running yields much more than it ever will against compact defences. Bottom 1% for passing Pierre, bottom 3% for possession. You’re literally bumming up a midfielder who hates touching the ball unless he’s on the end of… Read more »
“Nice try charlie but not true“
Uhh, it’s written in black and white Pierre….
He loves Willock but hated a superior player in Aaron Ramsey all the time here spent here. Still bums Ozil to this day and hates his re-gen in Odegaard.
Got to love the consistency if nothing else.
Eagle- I was honestly expecting Kroenke to let Edu/Arteta make an early … statement signing to reinvigorate the fanbase as well as take advantage of Clubs being broke or near bankrupt. anyhow. Maybe it will still happen but.. the opportunity is slipping and I just know how things operate.. we tend towards doing nothing when in doubt. I mean Xhaka and Kola still are on the roster. That’s depressing Anyhow .. yep 2015 was a joke.. we did end up signing Elneny I think as an outfield player that summer.. near the end. But Petr Cech was pretty much it.… Read more »
“Not exactly true though is it? Odegaard “destroys” Willock in passes, through balls, progressive carries/passes, shot creating actions, expected assists. The list goes on.”
Yes charlie , i recognise that Willock’s weak area is not getting involved in the game enough , but out of the 14 categories willock destroys Odegaard by 14-6….destroys him
Debruyne blows everyone out of the water according to the data and rightly so .
Lol, no Mid we signed Elneny in January of that season. He really DID go an entire summer without bringing in a single outfield player.
We weren’t even miles off of the title that season, a couple of outfield signings likely would have seen us push Leicester much closer/possibly have pipped them.
I can’t believe that we haven’t sold Xhaka yet or officially signed White. Really is taking an age, you just constantly fear that Roma will come to their sense and pull out of the deal the longer that goes by.
Oh Elneny was in January? my bad.. ok that summer was complete shit then. 😀
Pierre
Willock blows KDB out the water for tackles, blocks, and the other irrelevant stats concerning a creative midfielder.
The one area he’s embarrassingly short is in creating, passing, and possession…. He’s the equivalent of picking a pair of jeans for the beach in July and celebrating how warm they are, meanwhile you deride a pair of swimming shorts.
I’m so far behind, so my apologies for just butting back in haha.
Almunia
That post of yours July 26, 2021 22:04:14 and your theory about gks was a great read. I have been thinking the same thing,
Rodrigo de Paul really was a miss [I know that he went to Atletico but we could have poached him much sooner, he has been performing at this level for three seasons now].
His stats compare well to KDB’s, that’s when you know that you are in elite company.
Weagle ‘He loves Willock but hated a superior player in Aaron Ramsey all the time here spent here” I don’t love willock and i didn’t hate Ramsey , in fact i would put them on a similar level , one is overrated the other is under rated. You and Charlie talk about Willock at Newcastle as if it is was easy going to a club in and around the bottom 3 and single handedly dragging them to safety with his goals from midfield Comments like “He did well there because they play entirely into his limited strengths”…. And ‘”Willock is… Read more »
Charlie
“Willock blows KDB out the water for tackles, blocks, and the other irrelevant stats concerning a creative midfielder.”
So pressuring, tackling , interceptions and blocks are irrelevant now .
Aqnd there was i thinking that Arteta wanted players who could press, intercept , tackle and block , creative or not.
Sell Willock at the best opportunity
His repertoire is limited to one skill set, powerful runs from deep with an eye for goal
Nice but he can’t dribble, tackle, create, defend. He needs to have a test as built around his deficiencies to carry him
I like Neves from what I’ve seen of him, he’s like a deep play maker, a baller under rated because he’s in wolves
Great passing, progression of the ball. Great in the tackle, and also appears he’s good at free kicks. Def upgrade on xhaka
Pierre Suitability is one of the most important aspects to a players success at a given club. Willock’s strengths are his running power, pressures, and nose for goal. It’s blindingly obvious why he was able to shine at a side like Newcastle. Only sad thing is trying to dismiss the value of traits like passing and creativity to an advanced midfielder while claiming he “destroys” others in tackles/blocks per game as some trophy. There’s a theme for you, Ozil, Eddie, Willock, all players with horribly poor all-round games that lean heavy on one trait. “So pressuring, tackling , interceptions and… Read more »
I’ve watched Ramsdale once or twice
Incredible shot stopper
Can’t say much about the rest of his game but 30 million plus sounds crazy
Charlie
“Only sad thing is trying to dismiss the value of traits like passing and creativity to an advanced midfielder”
Anyone knows that i question Willocks lack of involvement in the build up play, wich includes pasing, possesion of the football and creativity, , but if you wish to be disingenuous then feel free..
Charlie
“I didn’t say pressures were irrelevant, but tackles, blocks, interceptions are damn near irrelevant when it comes to a creative midfielder”
Exactly the point i used to make when you and the rest of Le Grove slaughtered Ozil for not doing the “irrelevant” parts of the game because he was our one and only creative midfielder…….and now apparently it is an irrelevant part of the game for a creative midfielder.
Kroenkephobe, if you liked Chinatown , you’ll definitely like 3 days of the condor, another classic.
Leftside, Maddison and Sancho breaking Covid protocol is the same thing like two guys getting caught speeding is the same thing ………. except one’s offense is caught by the street camera, while the other is being pulled over by the cops but instead of stopping he decides to run and hide. Now go to court and argue the second was a misdemeanor just like the first one was and see how successful you are. You might have a chance if you have our Charlie here represent you……he’ll throw so much shit at the judge the poor guy is bound to… Read more »
All this talk of Odegaard vs Maddinson reminded me of the classic Walcott vs Hazard debate back then . Was it Keyser who triggered it ?